In various manufacturing or other processes it is desirable to provide for nondestructive evaluation of items being produced. It is particularly desirable to provide for as complete as possible three dimensional information about an object, including both exterior and interior features. Various inspection techniques, such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, microwave, and acoustic wave imaging have been developed to address this need. The problem with these types of methods is that they often require long measurement times to produce the needed measurements. Thus, it is not practical to use these types of methods. Consider, for example, a case where the material being inspected is flowing, such as molten metal in a casting or fluid mixtures flowing through a pipe. The slow inspection techniques listed previously can not provide much useful information about these dynamic processes.
One specific example of an application where it would be desirable to provide three dimensional representations or visualizations relates to metal casting. Casting is a convenient way to manufacture complex metal shapes. However, understanding the dynamics of this process is a challenging problem. Although, real-time radiography of metal pours has given some insight into the problem, the images obtained are only two-dimensional projections that provide limited information on the dynamics of the process for complex geometries such as engine blocks.
Another specific example of an application where it would be desirable to provide three dimensional representations or visualizations relates to inspecting of complex structures formed from multiple layers. Inspection issues include quantifying cracks, porosity, density gradients and delaminations between layers.
These same problems are encountered with a number of different types of objects, inspection techniques, and manufacturing processes. Therefore, it is a primary object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide for three-dimensional information about an object.
It is another object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide for three-dimensional information about an object in a rapid, preferably real-time manner.
Another object, feature, or advantage of the present invention is to provide for three-dimensional information about an object that can be used in a manufacturing or production process.
These and/or other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the disclosure that follows and/or the claims.